It's unusual that ITV didn't hold off a couple of months with their Star Wars premiere and show it at Christmas. Perhaps they felt it was occasion enough to pull in the viewers anyway. That year, on Christmas night, they ran with The Black Hole.

chipsteak wrote:It's unusual that ITV didn't hold off a couple of months with their Star Wars premiere and show it at Christmas. Perhaps they felt it was occasion enough to pull in the viewers anyway. That year, on Christmas night, they ran with The Black Hole.

Always thought it was a bit unusual that they didn't hang on till Christmas. They would have owned the Christmas Day ratings.

According to this article, ITV paid between £1.5-2.5 million for the rights and screened it pretty much as soon as they could. Bizarrely, the pre-Christmas advertising revenues were more lucrative than the holiday season.

I've seen stats about the largest UK tv audiences for film showings and Star Wars didn't make the top ten. Live And Let Die took the top honour. Perhaps the figures were very incomplete as I understand Lew Grade paid a fortune to get SW on UK telly.

We were pretty lucky he did. I recall the rental video of Star Wars coming out around the same time as the ITV showing. This lead to either rumours - or likely just my brother pulling my chain - that the broadcast would get pulled. I don't think free TV Stateside got it until 1983.

myself and my brother were very good at stopping recording at the end of the ad break, then rewinding and sitting there next to the video ready to hit the record button to get it as seamless as we could.

I dont know if thats the first time I became aware of the little lines in the top corner of the screen telling us (or apparently its a regional thing for local adverts to kick in) there was an ad break coming or not.

Just watched the adverts, awesome, thanks odb...but...definitely not the adverts I watched as a kid! Some seem very similar but I remember the Milky Way advert with the red and blue car shown at least twice on the copy my dad recorded off the tv. All the advert timings are right just not the adverts! Has anyone got a different recording of Jedi!? Looking at the dates it would have been the 1990 broadcast

Spookedhippie wrote:Just watched the adverts, awesome, thanks odb...but...definitely not the adverts I watched as a kid! Some seem very similar but I remember the Milky Way advert with the red and blue car shown at least twice on the copy my dad recorded off the tv. All the advert timings are right just not the adverts! Has anyone got a different recording of Jedi!? Looking at the dates it would have been the 1990 broadcast

Did you watch it in the Thames region? The adverts were usually a regional thing, and not just the cheapo ones at the end for carpet shops.

After the premieres, you're into very regional territory too. My first taping of Star Wars happened at New Year 1986 and isn't listed anywhere, making me think it was a STV only thing.

Hello everyone Hope you don't mind me joining here I've got here from Google may I ask does the copy of Empire have some of Xmas Blind date on before it? and I think some musical program? on the same tape too?If so I know exactly where the beta tape originated from, I can also remember one of the adverts during Empire was for the Black Lace party album when it shows them singing Agadoo, doing the conga and shit like that

Btw great site I've read lots of threads and ended up thinking"shit so it weren't just me who noticed things like that" CheersMark

mark75 wrote:Hello everyone Hope you don't mind me joining here I've got here from Google may I ask does the copy of Empire have some of Xmas Blind date on before it? and I think some musical program? on the same tape too?If so I know exactly where the beta tape originated from, I can also remember one of the adverts during Empire was for the Black Lace party album when it shows them singing Agadoo, doing the conga and shit like that

Btw great site I've read lots of threads and ended up thinking"shit so it weren't just me who noticed things like that" CheersMark

Hi Mark and welcome to the forum. The ESB download is fantastic.The copy starts with approx. 40mins of Blind Date (shudder!). Hilarious 80s fashion and an annoying Scouse bint. What more could you ask for on Xmas Day

There's approx. 20mins of a Michael Crawford "Save the Children" Xmas charity show after ESB. Can't remember seeing the Black Lace ad you're referring to, but there are a few classic ads on there. The Deryck Guyler 'Skeleton' Scotch video tape ad and the KitKat pop group one."You can't sing, you can't play, you look awful........you'll go a long way!"

And the weetabix advert with the Maradonna handball scene. Considering it was 1988 i'm surprised they let than one go, I would have thought the memories were still too raw to make a joke of it! What a cheating bastard!!